TASK PROJECT DESIGN

RATIONALE

This task aimed at improving students’ motivation and Reading comprehension at Agustin Codazzi School. Agustin Codazzi students like English but they do not like reading English due to their lack of reading skills. These tasks helped them feel happy and motivated towards reading in English as they stimulated students’ imagination, creativity and participation. The purpose of this task was to engage students in different activities by using Pre, while and post stages, also, learners used Internet resources so as to explore, propose and create new things based on the previous reading activities.

 PROFILE OF THE LEARNERS

This task was carried out with a group of 21 students, who are in 11th grade at a public school in Neiva. Most of them like English but when they have to face a piece of reading, they say they feel confused and frustrated because they do not understand a word, also, because they lack effective strategies to deal with English texts. The school is located in the south part of Neiva. Students come from poor areas. We usually work with a textbook that is called “American Shine for teens”. They normally get copies from the book. Their ages range from 16 to 19 years old. They are well-behaved. They dream of having a better future. Their English level is very low and the purpose of these reading tasks is to help them improve their ICFES results so that they can have the chance to enter any public university.


OBJECTIVE OF TASKS

1. To motivate students towards reading in English.

2. To guide them in the use of web resources to explore, create and propose.

3. To develop effective reading strategies by using pre, while and post-stages when reading environmental articles.

4. To create awareness about the importance of taking care of the environment

PROCEDURE

Pre-reading stage

The teacher showed the students a video about The Amazon drought. The video was about the lack of water in some parts of the Amazon and the way some rivers have died out. Students gave their insights and reflections about the topic and the video. Most of their comments were in Spanish because they wanted to express their ideas and thoughts in relation to this environmental problem. They do not feel confident when talking in English.

Then the teacher gave the students the copies of the reading, which had some blanks to be completed according to the listening of that text.

The students liked the activity although it was very difficult for them. However some of them understood some words from the listening exercise.

Then the teacher explained the meaning of some words from the listening exercise and asked students to read the text again at home and complete the reading comprehension exercises.


While-reading stage

The teacher selected some students to read the text aloud, meanwhile he was correcting some pronunciation mistakes students normally make when reading.

After reading the text, the teacher revised the comprehension exercises and students socialize the answers with the whole class.


Post- reading stage

The teacher explained to the students how to create a Facebook group; he actually created it and asked students to participate actively. The purpose was to get 100 members and now, the Facebook group has 95 members who support the campaign against the Amazon drought and all the consequences it has on nature and wild life.

Students are pretty motivated to participate in the facebook group as they have never done it before. This is a good opportunity for them to use technology. However, most of the comments were made in Spanish. Students, at least, participated a lot. This is a good start for them. They feel they can do something useful and real.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SOURCES

In order to carry out this activity, I used an on-line article that was taken from www.breakingnewsenglish.com. Also, I used a video that I downloaded from www.youtube.com in order to show students how affected the Amazon was.
Article link; http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0510/051017-amazon-e.html

DISCUSSION

Well, there are many things I can tell in relation to this task. I could notice that students lack opportunities to explore new things and those opportunities should be given by teachers. They really enjoyed this task. Most of them participated a lot, they were willing to collaborate. They paid attention. They were really engaged with the facebook group. Many positive aspects came out from this experience.

On the other hand, there are some things I would like to change next time I decide to carry out any type of task. Next time, I would like to provide students with colorful articles so that they could see clear images. The copies were not good. I would try to get a more comfortable classroom for them to feel better and concentrate more on the task. The classroom was so hot and they got distracted.

In general, the activity was nice and students really liked it. They had never received a class with a laptop and a video beam so it was amazing for them. Students need to be given chances to imagine, dream and like English.

FACEBOOK GROUP;
file:///C:/Users/Hernan%20Dario/Documents/Master's%20program/Language%20learning%20resources/group.php.htm